Next Summer
by Hayley128
Summary: Sequel to Summer. With the first year of college complete, Buffy is free to turn her full attention back to her relationship with Faith but there may be some obstacles along the way.


Next Summer by Hayley

Summary: Sequel to Summer. With the first year of college complete, Buffy is free to turn her full attention back to her relationship with Faith but there may be some obstacles along the way.

* * *

My last final just got over and I had no idea how relieved that would make me.

I get up and turn my paper in to a professor that probably doesn't even know my name. Then again, I probably don't want her to know that. I've been trying to be invisible in my classes since this year hasn't exactly been perfect.

Who would've thought my psych professor would be military and in charge of an experiment gone wrong? Only in Sunnydale, I swear.

That's all over now though and I'm hoping I'll have a relaxing summer with my friends. I don't want to have to deal with any more military types or whatever experiments they test out. They were part of the reason my grades threatened to suffer.

Of course, then there was Faith.

We've had kind of a weird year but I think we worked any problems out along the way. It was hard not being able to see each other whenever we wanted and I tried to go along with what my mom wanted and didn't stay at the apartment as much as I would have wanted. That caused a couple problems right there and then there was . . .

"Hey, Buffy."

Riley.

I see him waiting for me in the hall and smile awkwardly. "Hi, Riley."

He's been flirting with me all year but never got the courage to really ask me out or even ask of I was involved with anyone. Okay, maybe that's not true. He's asked me out to coffee a few times but the offer's always been cut off for one reason or another.

Riley smiles at me and I look around to see if Willow or anyone else is around that can save me from this conversation. I'd even take Faith at this point even though she might end up kicking his ass. She knows about him but hasn't ever talked to him for any length of time. Every time she sees him I make sure we're walking in the other direction before he can approach if at all possible.

Being a slayer you'd think I wouldn't be scared of my girlfriend having a confrontation with the guy who's been after me all year but you'd be wrong. She's only been around him enough for him to help with us taking down the Initiative and to help with Adam. We had other problems to deal with so she didn't have time to ask him why he kept making moon eyes at me.

She definitely asked me though.

"So I can't believe it's taken me the entire year to get everything out," he starts and gives me that dopey smile that I'm sure a lot girls fall for. "I was hoping you weren't leaving so soon."

"Well, I am moving out of the dorms this afternoon." I gage his appearance and wonder how big of an excuse I need to have this time. "You know, since I'm done with finals and all."

"Maybe you can delay it." He takes a breath and lets it out slowly. "This whole year I've seen you around and I thought 'here's this incredible person I want to know'. And then I found out you're this super-human or something and then I really wanted to get to know you."

"Riley . . ."

"I'm going back to Iowa for a couple months but before I do I'd love to take you out and not just for coffee. I've been trying to get that out all year and it's never worked. I want to take you out to dinner."

"Riley . . ."

"If you say you need to patrol we can go early and can't Faith take over? I mean, she's a slayer, too."

I take a deep breath and look at him. He looks so hopeful but I need him to know he doesn't stand a chance with me. "Look, Riley, I can't go out with you. I'm seeing someone . . . and have been for a year."

He looks confused at this. "But I've never seen you with anyone except all your friends."

It looks like he's trying to figure out which one of my friends I could possibly be dating and I know I have to save him the trouble. I really do have to get to my dorm. "Riley, I'm dating Faith."

His eyes go wide for split second, like that was the last person he was going to guess. "Oh! I never would've thought . . . I guess all those glares she gave me while we were taking down the Initiative make sense now."

"She can be a little possessive."

Riley nods and I feel a little less nervous about this whole situation. He doesn't look like the kind of guy who will push the issue, especially since I honestly feel he is a nice guy. Just definitely not my type. "Okay, well, this was a little crushing but I'll get over it."

I let a small smile show. "Sorry."

He smiles back at me before wishing that I have a good and uneventful summer and I wish him the same. Riley walks away and I watch him for a few seconds before I look around. I can't believe I made it through one year of this.

* * *

When I get to my dorm room Willow's there packing up her clothes. We've both procrastinated a little too much and now we have to get everything done today. Faith and Xander will be there any minute to get us out of here. Xander's moving Willow's things back home and Faith's moving mine back to my mom's.

"Hey, Buffy," she greets me with a panicked smile. "Can you believe we're not ready to go? Xander and Faith are gonna kill us."

"They'll be fine," I say. "They should really expect this kind of thing by now."

We laugh at that then concentrate on packing. I already had a few things packed but none of my clothes were because I couldn't decide what to wear this morning and that meant no packing of anything clothes related. Now because of that I'm trying to get them all together as fast as I can.

"Do you think Tara will stop by before we get out of here?"

I look up from what I'm doing to see Willow looking at me hopefully. She really likes what she has with Tara, something she says she didn't think she'd have again after Oz left Sunnydale, but I think their relationship is still a little new for them. Tara's not going home for the summer because she told Willow she'd rather stay in Sunnydale but there's a small amount of distance that they'll have to deal with now.

"Maybe," I answer, smiling. "Are you nervous about not being so close?"

"A little," she admits, "but it'll be fine. It's not like one of us is leaving town or anything."

I nod. "Riley asks me out after my last class."

Willow's eyes go a little wide. "I never thought he would especially after that one time he almost got it out around Faith. She looked like she might kill him."

"That anger was used toward killing all those demons in the Initiative so I was fine with it." I think we were actually attacked before he could finish his sentence. He really has the worst timing. "I told him I was with Faith and that was the end of it."

"Really? Just the offer and that was it? I figured he'd put up a fight since he's tried to ask you out for the whole school year."

I shake my head. "Nope, that was it. He's leaving to go home anyway."

"Who's leaving?"

I turn my head to the door to see Faith standing there. She looks around the room and I know she's gonna say something about the fact that neither of us are packed. Everything's off the walls so she can't say anything about that but everything else is probably fair game.

"Riley," I answer and almost smile at the look on her face. "He's going home and asked to take me out before he left."

She raises an eyebrow and she looks so hot when she does that. "And?"

"What do you mean 'and'? I said I've been dating you and have been unavailable for quite some time."

"Oh." Faith smiles then and walks over to me. I stand and give her a light kiss once she gets to me. "I can see that both of you were so up on the packing. You know I have to get the truck back by tomorrow morning and I'm pretty sure the college won't like you being here another day."

I furrow my brow at that but don't comment on what she says, changing the subject instead. "Start being helpful then and help me get the rest of this stuff together."

Faith keeps grinning at me and I know if Willow wasn't here we'd be doing a little more kissing, probably more than that if I'm being honest. We haven't gotten much alone time lately because of everything that happened with the Initiative and then with finals. I know once we're alone together there's going to be a whole lot of nakedness.

We don't say anything else and Faith starts throwing stuff in boxes and closing them up as fast as she can. I'm trying to be quick about it, too, especially since it's not fifteen minutes later when Xander walks in and shakes his head.

"I can't say I'm not surprised."

"I'm almost done," Willow says as she seals up a box. "I swear."

"Then what can I bring out to the car?" he asks and Willow points to a few boxes in the corner.

"Where's Anya anyway, Xander?" I ask him as he's picks up a box. As his girlfriend, she should be here to carry boxes even if she doesn't want to. That's what friends do. "We could do this faster with another person."

"She, uh . . ."

"Didn't want to?"

He looks at Faith and grins. "Got it in one."

That really is an Anya thing to say and we all laugh a little before getting back to work. Faith helps me quickly get everything together and then we start carrying everything out to the truck Faith borrowed from the bar. It's not too long before everything's out of the room and we're all looking at the empty space.

"I can't believe we survived the first year."

We look at Willow and Xander looks at her. "Are you talking about the first year of college or just another year in Sunnydale?"

"Little from column A, little from column B."

Faith puts an arm around me and we walk out of the building and out to the truck, saying goodbye to Willow and Xander on the way. Willow looks a little down that Tara didn't stop by but I'm sure it's nothing. If I didn't know any better I'd say she gets a little nervous around all of us and that might be a reason to stay away.

Once we get inside the truck we kiss softly and Faith wiggles her eyebrows at me, which always makes me laugh. She told she has big plans to celebrate the first night of summer freedom but first we have to get to the house. Thinking about that reminds me of something else.

"Why are you bringing the truck back in the morning?" I ask when we break away from each other.

"'Cause we're not gonna need for a couple weeks after that. I can't just keep it. The bar needs it."

I never really thought of that. "I guess."

She starts up the truck and looks at me. "You should concentrate on tonight before thinking about the rest anyway."

"Yeah," I say and think about what will happen at dinner. I hope my mom will be okay with everything. I look at Faith then and grin. "I can't believe we're gonna move in together."


End file.
